An excerpt from First Patients: The incredible true stories of pioneer patients.
Unfazed by the village doctors’ refusals, the parish deacon forged ahead. Dr. Andrew Bell–preacher, educator, and doctor, possessed the temper and energy of a combustion engine. Nothing would stop him from carrying out his plan to vaccinate the three …
Farmer Jesty’s bold experiment
It is a master of stealth, stretching less than half an inch long and weighing in at 2.5 milligrams with as estimated air speed of 1 to 1.5 miles per hour. It is virtually soundless in flight, registering zero decibels from ten feet. Its tracking systems hone in on targets by detecting infrared radiation from warm bodies, chemicals such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid, body odors from as far …
Military tests of the Zika virus mosquito
Ronald Reagan’s last letter to the American people, penned with his own hand in November, 1994, went directly to the point:
“My fellow Americans, I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.”
In this deeply poignant moment, the former president explained that he decided to share his diagnosis “to promote greater awareness of this condition,” with the hope that doing …
Alzheimer’s dementia and a world in denial
The medical condition provocatively called exploding head syndrome, or EHS, brings back the disturbingly graphic images of the 1981 sci-fi horror flick Scanners where the main character blew up people’s heads with the power of telekinesis. Fortunately, as ominous as exploding head syndrome sounds, no skulls have actually exploded, and the condition is reassuringly non-life threatening. For the people who experience the symptoms of EHS, however, the ordeal can be …
Exploding head syndrome: Is it really terrifying?
The cherry trees are still there, blossoming every spring, on a patch of land near Stanley Park in Vancouver. They were planted in 1985 by a group of volunteers from AIDS Vancouver, to honor the memory of three Canadian sons who were among the early victims of AIDS. One of these men was Gaetan Dugas, who died in 1984. During this same period in San Francisco, Randy Shilts, a reporter …
The origins of HIV and the making of an AIDS scapegoat
The term “Golden Age” seemed to permeate multiple domains in the 1950s, almost to the point of triteness. The field of cardiac surgery, however, deservedly earned the term as pioneer after pioneer introduced innovation after innovation that advanced the specialty. Walter Lillehei in Minnesotta, Wilfred Gordon Bigelow in Toronto, William Chardack in Buffalo, and Ake Senning in Stockholm were just some of the trailblazers of that era.
The four surgeons also shared …
Innovation in cardiac surgery: When doctors worked with engineers
Carl didn’t know what was happening to his wife. The German railway clerk from Morfelder Landstasse and his wife Auguste had been happily married for twenty-eight years.They had one daughter, Thekla, and their marriage had always been harmonious — that is, until one Spring day in 1901 when Auguste suddenly exhibited signs of jealousy.
Auguste accused Carl of going for a walk with a female neighbor, and since then, she had …
How Dr. Alzheimer discovered a disease in a mental asylum
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
